archive

July 30, 2005

Wallet box

Thought about it while on a bracing evening walk. This morning was the last straw. I'm switching, starting tomorrow. I encourage others to do the same. And more important, write to the Times to tell them exactly why you are doing it. Not email, but fax or post. Registered post.

8 comments:

Nikhil
said...

I have not been staying in India for the past 5 years. I remember mare than a decade ago, it took me more than an hour to complete the TOI. Chuckling thru RK Laxmans cartoons, reading insightful commentaries by writers as diverse as Nikhil Chakravarti, Rafiq Zakaria, Dilip Padgaonkar and others and catching the news. In those days, the TOI also brought out an excellent chronicle on the Bombay riots. On my trips to India nowadays I can finish the newspaper in less than 10 minutes as it seems to be a rag where PAge 3 has almost taken over the entire paper. Alas this one institution has also deteriorated with others. This piece has crossed all limits of decency.Is there any noteworthy publication in Bombay. Curious to know.

Good for you!! I did this a year ago, and no, I didn't bother telling them why - let them spend a few bucks conducting 'market research' to find out why. :p

Nikhil, the same question was put to me by another NRI who was sick of the online edition... It's hard to answer that question, but The Hindu is still fairly balanced; the Asian Age is interesting, if somewhat given to spurts of tabloidization. Seems to have its heart in the right place. Tehelka has nice features and cloumns, and some good investigative reports. Ditto, the Indian Express (though I'm doing a rethink, based on the last month or so).

Dilip, agree ToI is the worst of the bunch - but others are not far behind. today's Deccan Chroinicle - Madras edition has on its front page - Mr. Bacchan goes without bath for three days - or some such thing. front page. Madras edition.http://indsight.org/blog/archives/2005/07/30/kyunki-celebrities-face-trauma-too/so far, the Hindu has managed to stay its cool unaffected self. the day they succcumb, I stop reading the papers.There was a 'just say no' campaign on popular Indian blogs a couple of years ago... maybe it is time for another one...(Annie, ouch for the market research bit:))

Annie'Balance' -something rediff does- providing diverse viewpoints of people is definitely not somethingI can associate The Hindu with. With the exception of Praveen Swamy's writing, almost every feature in The Hindu seems to reflect Mr N Ram's viewpoint or bias. The most bizarre was an interview with a Film artiste where the focus of the interview was more on his political views than his artistic output.